coco wrote:The commercial copy says納豆由来の保湿成分が潤いを与えるので、お肌ずーっとぷるぷる something like... ---Your skin keeps vitality for a long while since an ingredient of moisturizer from なっとう hydrates your skin. (?) An ingredient of moisturizer from なっとう makes your skin rich for long time.(?)---(I hope my Engrish makes sense.)There was a solid type soap inside the package. The color was same as なっとう brown.

Yesterday, I ate なっとう mixed with a little soy sauce, Japanese mustard and vinegar because I had read the article that said vinegar has odor elimination of なっとう. I used citrus vinegar and feel it is effective. I guess fresh lemon juice would be also fine.

I tried nattou today. I figured that I was sick, and nattou is supposed to be good for me, and I really wanted to eat Japanese anyway.

So taking the advice here, I made sure to eat it with rice, actually, my waitress suggested nattou sushi. So I got that. She didn't look too enthusiastic since she said she couldn't stand nattou herself--she's Japanese.

So when it came, I grabbed the tray, filled it with soy sauce and then put half of the wasabi in--as usual. Then, I picked up my first bite and noticed the long string of sticky that trailed to my plate. So I dipped it in the wasabi-soy-sauce and tossed it in my mouth.

Keeping that down was one of the harder things I've ever had to do in a restaurant. The taste reminded me of bad beans. My mom used to make bean soup--big huge pots of it--and it often went bad and I was the one that had to wash the pots. So I now won't touch pinto beans. Anyway, I sipped coke to keep it down and looked at the nattou sushi in horror contemplating grabbing another piece and maybe it wouldn't be soo bad, then, my chicken katsu arrived. Because chicken wins.

So I dug straight into my chicken katsu and put the nattou as far from myself as I could. And that was that. When my waitress asked me how it went, I told her that me and nattou didn't get along.

There's a Japanese restaurant here in Denver that offers a Natto Donburi. I'm desperately trying to find the time and occasion to go down there and order it! The restaurant is extremely authentic so I know it will be prepared right. Perhaps I can get a complement from my sensei there for trying it. (The head chef was also my Aikido sensei.)

Honestly it doesn't sound that bad to me. I am in no way a picky eater, and if I can handle the stuff that my friends and I come up with out of boredom, I'm sure I can try natto and any other Japanese delicacy. Sounds good with mustard. The only thing I would be afraid of is if it were "rotten" rather than "fermented" (I suppose there is a difference) I'm very cautious about eating things that could make me ill. But natto seems to be healthy, no?

Yeah that's what I figured. And Doumo Restuarant has been rated by Zagats the second best Japanese restaurant in Colorado (first place for decoration) So I know the natto donburi will be good even if I were to dislike natto alone.

On a side note, my mom and I went to the Pacific Ocean Market grocery store today. It's pretty big and they have a whole aisle specifically for Japanese food. But alas, I searched desperately in that and every other aisle of the store to find the Natto, and to no avail. I was really surprised (and disappointed). They had EVERYTHING! Save for natto.

What would you guys equate it's texture to? I was guessing something like barbecue beans, but more sticky? I know it's slimy, but I can't think of any common American foods that would be similar.

I don't know how tongue-in-cheek that page was, but I think that Clay violated the cardinal rule of natto eating -- do not eat natto alone. I recommend mixing it with rice. The rice not only absorbs the stickiness of the natto but it complements the flavor very well. Natto-maki sushi is a good way to eat it.

Also, it doesn't taste as bad as it smells -- the taste is kind of nutty.